This year’s Deloitte Connected Small Business report has highlighted the increasing implementation of digital strategies by Australian SMB’s.

Since 2013, there has been a fifty percent increase in the number of businesses boasting an advanced level of digital engagement through activities like online advertising and search engine optimisation.

It’s unsurprising that a greater level of digital engagement pays off. Revenue growth, innovation and increased employment are some of the key benefits.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

SMB’s at an advanced level of digital engagement were one-and-half times more likely to have experienced revenue growth over the previous twelve months compared to those with only basic engagement

SMB’s with an advanced level of digital engagement are more than fourteen times more likely to display innovation in new products or services

SMB’s with an advanced level of digital engagement are more than eight times more likely to experience employment growth

Over half of Australian SMB’s are still operating at a basic to intermediate level of digital engagement, with only nine percent at an advanced level

Our CEO, Clay Cook, has shared his views on the report with Campaign Brief, including rallying the industry as a whole to come together to break down the misgivings and barriers that are preventing businesses from increasing their adoption.

Google’s hotly anticipated Penguin ranking update has finally been released. It’s been a long wait for SEO agencies and website owners.

In late September, Penguin 4.0 was launched by Google, however it’s unlike any other previous Penguin update. Through this release, Penguin now operates in real-time and as part of Google’s core search algorithm. This means that ranking adjustments will now occur as Google re-crawls the web and existing penalties will be lifted much sooner. However, instead of demoting a website, Penguin 4.0 now devalues the link spam so that it is excluded from a website’s ranking calculation.

Our team have kept a keen eye on the “recovery” component of the update. We’re happy to report we’ve seen some strong improvements for clients who have engaged us to help fix penalties from previous SEO activities.

Our reputation across Australia for our work in highly competitive markets continues to grow with news of our latest client appointments.

Triumph Motorcycles and City of Armadale are the latest companies looking to emulate Bonfire performance for other high profile companies.

The iconic motorcycle company was managing its campaigns internally. They realised specialist knowledge is necessary to grow their market share. Whereas, the City of Armadale have revamping their online presence with a focus on their tourism brand. The council made an important shift to digital to reposition it in the minds of residents, stakeholders and the general WA public.

In 2015, Australian digital advertising spend increased 25% over the previous year and cracked $6 billion.

What makes this news such a milestone is the fact that it’s the fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth for the industry.

It’s news that doesn’t surprise our CEO, Clay.

This news solidifies the fact that advertisers have ‘seen the light’ and are investing more heavily in digital as it provides more opportunities to reach consumers. From mobile, to video and display advertising, digital is one of the few forms of advertising that continues to innovate and consistently deliver measurable results.

He has shared this thoughts on the news and where digital is heading with Campaign Brief.

To celebrate 20 years in the Digital Marketing industry, we’ve been featured in this month’s edition of Campaign Brief magazine.

Since starting out in 1996, we’ve seen tremendous change in the online space. In the beginning, there was no Google. They only came on the scene in 1998. However, 2015 was our biggest year so far. We’ve had a stunning year of growth with new clients including Bonds, reiwa.com and Rusty.

2015 was pretty epic, but 2016 is on track to be even better!

(As you can see from our accompanying ad, we take Digital Marketing very seriously!)

We’ve kicked off the year with a bang by securing WA’s largest independent transport and logistics company, Centurion, as a client.

Centurion reached out to us at the end of 2015 as they wanted to shake up their marketing in 2016. In a market that is predominantly word of mouth, Centurion is looking to buck the trend by modernising its brand online and attracting new business through Google.

Bonfire will develop a new set of campaigns for 2016 and beyond with the aim to grow Centurion’s digital presence in Google and further increase the companies influence in the WA logistics industry.

We’re thrilled to announce that REIWA, the peak body for the real estate profession in Western Australia, has recently engaged us to implement its Google marketing strategy.

Over the past 3 months we’ve been busy implementing a thorough SEO strategy and the results are already showing – the REIWA website, http://reiwa.com.au/, has seen a 15% increase in its organic traffic already.

News of this partnership was featured in both The West newspaper and Campaign Brief.